History of Westchester County, New York — Passage 13
[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] individual, as thev were able to inflict. Their characteristics in these 28 HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY respects, and their disposition of complete unteachableness as to moderation and Christian precept, are described in quaint terms in a letter written in 1G28 by Domine Jonas Michaelius, the first pastor in New Amsterdam. " As to the natives of this country," writes the good domine, " I find them entirely savage and wild, strangers to all decency; yea, uncivil and stupid as posts, proficient in all wickedness and godlessness; devilish men, who serve nobody but the devil, that THK Pl'KCIIASK OF MANHATTAN is, the spirit which, in their language, they call Mauetto, under which title they comprehend everything that is subtle and crafty and beyond human power. They have so much witchcraft, divination, sorcery, and wicked tricks that they can not be held in by any locks or bounds.